Prince of Persia; why all the hatin?

DeVore

Finished this last night. Overall I loved it but here are my thoughts.

Its easy, that much cant be denied. This is not the "where the hell do I go now" Prince of the Sands of Time era. There are some points where its not immediately obvious but by and large the environment is there to be played with and marvelled at. Its not the puzzle.
Later on when you get to the running and flying parts, it gets a bit harder but never to the "I'm going to throw this controller out of the window if I dont get it this time" levels of SoT.

The fights are easy too, though they get harder and longer towards the end. button mashing wouldnt do, you need to learn their weaknesses in each state to hurt them and learn the "escape" button from each of their animated attacks. I liked the fights but they werent the best bit of the game for me either.

The story line and script are good, not great but good. I had a few laughs out of it and found I was quite interested in the story (if only she'd stop saying "fertile grounds" all the time).

The ending is awesome. I wont spoil it but really.... wow. Kudos to the writers for doing it that way, its was great.

The overall game was, imho, a real experience. It wasnt so much a puzzle game, or a fighting game, it was a set piece in which you play your part to enable a visual feast of an experience. Thats not everyone's cup of tea but its certainly mine!

Unless you buy into that, there isnt much game otherwise. I can understand why people didnt like it but its a game that needs time to grab you and shouldnt be rushed in a weekend or you will be sick of it.

It isnt Sands of Time, but it has renewed my hope for the Prince and they are on the right track imho! One of the best "games" of the year in my opinion, if you liked goofing off with Altair in Assassins Creed finding flags and running about like a loon, you'll love this.

DeV.

johnny_ultimate

Have only played a few hours so far, but also a little confused about some of the more extreme criticisms being thrown out there (Edge review in particular was extremely harsh). The movement is definitely a step up from Sands of Time (although not quite sure if the level design is), the art design is often astonishing and overall it is a very smooth and enjoyable experience, even if it isn't very hard at all. Combat is better than SoT though - that was the one issue I had with the game, mainly because of that dreadful leap in difficulty an hour or two in when you had to fight Farah's father.

The one thing which really does get to me though is the change in the Prince - while probably a better change than the idiot in Warrior Within, he is still very annoying, and would be nice to see a return to the SoT character. Bit of a step away from the Arabian nights setting too, although that works for the most part.

But yeah I do agree with a lot of your points at this point, but definitely seems to be a game best played in hour long chunks rather than marathons. But a big improvement, even if as you say isn't back to SoT quality yet.

monkeyfudge

Yep. Definitely one to play in chunks.

I played it over the course of about 2 weeks, playing about half an hour to an hour at a time.

Elika's ability to tell you were you should be going comes in handy if you haven't loaded it up in a while.

The controls felt a lot worse when I realised some time into the game that I was over controlling things and pressing buttons and holding triggers when it simply wasn't necessary... suddenly controlling the prince felt like a far more lazy experience.

Some fantastic moments in there though... The warrior levels were definitely a high light for me.

I wasn't too crazy on the ending though... I just wanted to go off and find my donkey.

Being able to unlock

Jade from Beyond Good and Evil

is awesome though...

m83

I just got bored with it - too repetitive and too easy.

ShoulderChip

why is it so cheap?

its only 25 euro

i think one of the previous games was this cheap new as well,

i think i might get it

wes

In full agreement with the OP. I loved the new POP, fantastic game all around.

monkeyfudge

It also worth noting that it's a very polished title.

I've gotten so used to games this year being absolutely loaded with bugs. But Prince of Persia feels like a properly finished and play tested product.

Nothing can ever beat the good old times when you could fornicate with the walls while running into them.

m83

I can't believe people are so happy about this game.


Give me Digger T Rock (obscure, I know) any day - infintely more challenging and enjoyable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOSgiq_YTTw

Smellyirishman

Started playing this last night and am now lacking only one of the plate powers (damn you glut of games over X-mas). Although I've been hitting it pretty hard I'm really enjoying the game for all of the reasons already mentioned and I'll be recommending it to friends once I'm done.

Hopefully I'll come back to it in my leisure and aim for some of the hard achievements after this first play through.

AnCapaillMor

Absolutely loved the game, i'm a huge fan of the previous 3.

Starting off i was'nt too impressed jump and wall run on the same button thought it was too easy. The further i got, the better i thought it was when it added in the rings and ceiling runs. and eventually the plates The scenery was just breathtaking.

I thought the interaction between the 2 was oscar worthy.

As for being too easy, i think they're trying to attract the casual gamers, the other 3 pops were never hugely sucesful amongst casual gamers, the prices dropped by 20 quid after 2 weeks or so. The guide thingy was easy alrite but i think was needed, in previous pops it was never really hard to get lost, it was piss easy in this game at the to end up 2-3 areas away from your original destination. without consulting the map.

Anyway really looking forward to the sequel.

DeVore

DeVore wrote: »

It isnt Sands of Time, but it has renewed my hope for the Prince and they are on the right track imho! One of the best "games" of the year in my opinion,

Is the game really this good? I have to say the ad's for it didn't sell me at all!

That said, I've been a fan of Prince of Persia since the days when the original was the most advanced game on the PC (remember that tough b*stard at the start of level 8, anyone??? ).

I had "Sands of Time" for the PS2 back in the day, and did like it a lot.

DeVore wrote: »

if you liked goofing off with Altair in Assassins Creed finding flags and running about like a loon, you'll love this.
DeV.

I loved Assassin's Creed. The graphics, the environment, the entire "feel" of the game.

HOWEVER it has p*ssed me off as there are four-ish flags that I'm missing (from a few different sets), that simply ARE NOT in the game. I've tried everything from looking on the internet for locations to being very careful about not picking them up untill I was collecting a specific set, but no joy.

Grrrrrr.... :mad:

calex71

Ok interaction between characters i did like. The whole game split in to 4 sections with a boss is tried and tested nothing wrong if its done well. Here there just wasnt enough variety in the levels , the lands where devoid of enemies. You would be unlucky to get one fight per land and the enemy spawned in the same spot each time.

the button pressing was akin to guitar hero without the fun for me , and thats all this game was for me timed button bashing.

The whole game reeks of lazy development and truely is a poor mans assassins creed with out the same level of plot and ending.

The ending was a total rip off ,

left you feeling what was the point of even playing it for 12 hours iff he was going to turn around and undo it all , ok i know i know for love , but surely they could have come up with a better way of developing another trilogy:mad:

tman

I'm also loving it so far, but finding it waaaaaay too easy... I'd say there's about 3-4 day's play in it, and I've already played through 2 (more if you excuse the fact that the autosave is absolutely bloody useless and lost 2 hours of my game...)
Some of the dialogue is quite good, even if the Prince's voice actor sounds like a total...

The flying parts are incredibly annoying, I've used all 4 of the powers now and this is by far the least enjoyable. Doesn't help that I now I have to do the flying bits again thanks to the autosave cockup mentioned above:mad:

The difficultly would be my main complaint, I guess it would be a different story if you were trying to get the "go easy on her" achievement, but having Elika there to save your ass every time gets a little weak... I'm not a big fan of frustration, but I still like a challenge sometimes:(
Someone should beat Pete Moleneux and whoever was in charge of this around the face with a copy of Ninja Gaiden

DeVore

Aaah Calex.... all the way through the game they talk about her father doing this for love,

the game ends as you walk out with her body in your arms and you can then just stop if you want.... no one forced you to cut down the trees and I thought it was a great way to kick off the sequel!

.

I agree with MF when he says it felt polished. I do wish it had been more difficult. Like MF I too realised I was over controlling him and moving around became a lot easier and "lazy" but I liked that, it made it feel more like Spiderman... I was very much in control of him and enjoyed bouncing along. String jumps together and using Elika to find short cuts was a lot of fun.

How do you unlock the skins though? is it a special code or a game achievement?

DeV.

thebman

I got the game knowing I wouldn't really like it as much as the others because I love POP.

All in all, it is not a POP game like I feared. Its some raped cousin.

In saying that, it is still enjoyable in some ways, it is just a pity that they didn't make a POP game when that is the name of the title! :mad:

I think in the overall scheme of things, the 3D titles that are worth mentioning can go in the following order:

1) POP: Sands of Time
2) POP: Warrior Within
3) POP: This new one
4) POP: The Two Thrones

Warrior Within had its annoying things about the prince etc... but at least the game had good puzzles and fun combat. This one has none of that.

All in all I think it is obvious that they need to forget about fads and what is popular with the mainstream and just make a POP game with no gimmicks. This new one was never going to appeal to mainstream, casual gamers anyway. They don't really like full 3D experiences and prefer things like Brain Training or Guitar Hero or Lips.

monkeyfudge

DeVore wrote: »

How do you unlock the skins though? is it a special code or a game achievement?

DeV.

Well I was on the PS3 version... I think it was just under and extras option on the main menu. Some require codes, but on finishing the game I unlocked a Sands of Time prince, Farah (not the donkey) and Jade.

As for Spider-man... just finished Web of Shadows last night and it's actually really good fun as well. The camera finds it hard to cope with moving from wall climbing to you being on top of a building though, which is very irritating.

meep

don't play games too much and was looking forward to this over Christmas. Huge disappointment. Got as far as greening the first area and have given up.

The combat is boring in the extreme, the climbing around the level is repeditive and not very puzzling and the dialog is abysimal. There will be a very little used copy on adverts.ie soon!

Smellyirishman

Just finished the game (<12hours anyway) and loved it, very refreshing. Yeah, the combat is a little fiddly some times and the flying plates are a pain in the tits but at its core it's a very satisfying experience. When you know the route (or even when you don't) and you are bounding from one obstacle to the next without missing a stride, it's a joy.

I'll definitely be going back for the light seeds collection at some point.

Loved the ending too.

NunianVonFuch

Finished the game earlier today, it was all right. The visuals were awesome, dialogue had its moments and the ending was ok. Gameplay isn't really there though, find myself nodding off at times. Though it was fun playing it one-handed (eating a sandwich, on the phone, etc) and finding that for most of the game it made no difference. When you're climbing about you just need to tap A or B every now and then to keep going. It's not really a challenge at all. Sands of Time is way better, this was just filler using the Assassin's Creed engine to pump out a game for xmas. At least in that you could miss a jump, this has everything signposted for you!

thebman

NunianVonFuch wrote: »

Finished the game earlier today, it was all right. The visuals were awesome, dialogue had its moments and the ending was ok. Gameplay isn't really there though, find myself nodding off at times. Though it was fun playing it one-handed (eating a sandwich, on the phone, etc) and finding that for most of the game it made no difference. When you're climbing about you just need to tap A or B every now and then to keep going. It's not really a challenge at all. Sands of Time is way better, this was just filler using the Assassin's Creed engine to pump out a game for xmas. At least in that you could miss a jump, this has everything signposted for you!

Thats the main problem alright. Jumps are easy to make and everything has a distinctive texture to let you know what you need to do at that time so you never get lost or miss a beat or anything like that.

Combat is sh*te too. Its just sh*te, everything is just wash, rinse, repeat.

I can get some enjoyment out of the jumps but the fighting is just terrible. At this stage, I know the button combinations off by heart to do at each stage.

ShoulderChip

God why does he have an american accent, its appaling.

Placebo

i really dont like the way you cant fall, all the risks in taking jumps and going the right directions are gone, only reason you wont keep jumping is because of that stupid CG of her saving you as you fall. Bit annoying

also his accent... other than that its beautiful

also bad guys need more intro/back story

AnCapaillMor

Same guy did drake in drakes fortune. Initially i'd the same reaction to the accent but it grew on me, they've tried to change the whole game, one of the things that annoyed from the previous 3 was the prince had the personality of a plank and was too bloody serious. It tried ti get you more into the story more than the others.

RAIN

started it yesterday, i like it!

It does copy a few other games (crackdown and fable 2) a bit but it looks great and the platforming is hypnotic. i really like when youv finished a level and you have to collect the orbs because it becomes less linear.

i dont get what all the hate about the not dying thing is about ?
Sure in the old pop you could rewind time if you fell down a hole? so its the same damn thing ?!
Fair enough you could only do it a few times but the sands were so plentifull it may aswell have been infinite.
The combat could have been more varied,i had hoped they would have made the assasins creed combat more varied with more moves but instead you get this weird stepping back and forth thing.

thebman

RAIN wrote: »

started it yesterday, i like it!

It does copy a few other games (crackdown and fable 2) a bit but it looks great and the platforming is hypnotic. i really like when youv finished a level and you have to collect the orbs because it becomes less linear.

i dont get what all the hate about the not dying thing is about ?
Sure in the old pop you could rewind time if you fell down a hole? so its the same damn thing ?!
Fair enough you could only do it a few times but the sands were so plentifull it may aswell have been infinite.
The combat could have been more varied,i had hoped they would have made the assasins creed combat more varied with more moves but instead you get this weird stepping back and forth thing.

Sands of Time had other uses for the sand though and ti mixed up the game play and the combat.

This is very much jumps, combat, liberate tower from corrution, repeat.

The combat is very repetitive too with little entertainment after the first few fights since nothing changes.

The jumping and stuff is fun but could have been so much better if it was more like Sands of Time and didn't guide you along and assume you were a moron that needed to see a certain texture before you'd work out what to do.

Also all the paths are very similar and even this starts to get repetitive. The Sands of Time was just way more varied and more effort went into it IMO.

I've played it and I can get enjoyment out of it but from a franchise that was once bringing us some of the most amazing 3D gaming we ever witnessed, it is a very disappointing title.

J-blk

Yep, got around to finishing it yesterday and I have mixed feelings about it. While it is a beautiful game, it does feel repetitive and the combat is just down right annoying. Even the boss fights are all pretty much exactly the same (slight exception on the Warrior, but not something ground-breaking) and by the end of the game, even fighting the "regular" enemies just feels so tedious.

The ending kinda of pissed me off to a degree though on the other hand, I did kinda like it...

Another annoying thing is the powers/plates. In Sands of Time and its' sequels, there were times where you where thinking "how the f**k do I reach that?" - even if it needed a special sand power to get there, it took some pretty creative and skilled uses of them to pull it off. But in this one, you see some orb in a weird a** location and almost instantly spot the power plate that'll conveniently take you there. No challenge in that...

Retr0gamer

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

one of the things that annoyed from the previous 3 was the prince had the personality of a plank and was too bloody serious. It tried ti get you more into the story more than the others.

Yeah, but wasn't that the point of the princes character? Well in the first game at least. In the first gmae he was a spoiled rotten brat that slowly during the course of the game and with his relationship with Farah became much more mature and learned to take responsibility for his own mistakes and saw Farah as much more than just a servant girl.

AnCapaillMor

SOT is a bad example it was very linear it was'nt easy to get lost. It was pretty much i've to go there but how do i get there once you got there you never had to really backtrack, which why i preferred warrior within, altho it did get frustrating. and easy to get lost at times. This one you could pretty much access the whole map and it was quite easy to end to end up a zone or 2 away from your intended target. The orb was a useful idea but implemented badly. It should've just flew in a straight line to the point or show waypoints not follow the path to the point.

To RG, yeah that was well done but he was still a boring old fart, this POP he was he antithesis of the SOT character.

solace

The only thing that's pissing me off is his bloody voice.

DeVore

Mostly what I'm happy about is what they will do with the NEXT one. It seems like this was a reboot of the series and the next one will improve on the things that were criticised (quite reasonably) above in this thread.

DeV.

Dunder Mifflin

Great game but whoever thinks that the interaction between the two characters is anything other than painful needs to have their heads checked.

I have to press LT all the time, if I don't it'll just bug me (mini-OCD?), but jesus I wish there was a way to turn off that notification. I regret pressing it everytime. I hate the cut-scenes and wish a painful death on the stupid damn prince.

Other than the dialogue (oh and that really annoying bit when you have to rotate the water ponds) the game is superb. Easy, but really fun.

DeVore

the only bit of dialogue I liked was the whole "wanna play a word game?" bit... I admit I laughed at that but that was it. In SoT it was all excellent dialogue... but as I said, I'm hopeful for the future and I did like this game!

DeV.

sceptre

Damn you all to hell, you've piqued my interest now.

johnny_ultimate

Whatever about the combat (the more I play, the more I realise some of the boss fights - in particular the

final few Concubine ones

- are severely borked and frustrating as soon as they change form) there is a wonderful sense of gratification to be had when you do your spinning sword trick into the rising pile of corruption before the enemy manages to spawn.

DeVore

You know the story with the fighting right?

Normal: hit them with everything
Blue: hit them with your sword
Red: Grapple them (hard!)
Black: Use Elika


When they do an animated move, you need to counter with the correct button, it will always be the same button for the same animation. Learn them and you will slaughter them.

Finally, when you get an attack run in with the sword, use grapple and then elika and then sword again and you can chain the attacks with Elika and Sword, you can have them bouncing around the air like a rag doll, its very enjoyable and does big damage

DeV.

AnCapaillMor

Does the 360 achievements have that combo master achievement, its breaking my bloody heart at the moment, the 14 hit combo hit was easy enough.

johnny_ultimate

DeVore wrote: »

You know the story with the fighting right?...

DeV.

Yeah have gotten the hang of it for the most part, just don't like the way its implemented sometimes . For example, the QTEs that require split-second reactions or failure is really cheap design - admittedly I have a bit of a thing against QTEs (I'm all for immersion rather than lightly-interacting cutscenes!) but the later fights pile them on a little.

Now, I really like the combat when you string together a good combo - hit, hit, Elika, Elika, followed by a couple of grapple / aerial tricks - has a real sense of power behind it, especially when you knock an enemy of the edge of the level. But then you have the close the Concubine changing form, and the awkward timing and movement necessary to grapple her.

I think it is the only part of the game - aside from graphics and animation, of course - that improves upon SoT, but still think it could have been implemented a little better. Half the time I love it - when you successfully get in your combo it is a very fluid system alright - but think it can be a bit overly awkward and contrived at times!

That said, for the most part I am still really enjoying the game as I get closer to the end (have fully finished two of the four areas and have finished half of the other two) and while it is easy, it is a pretty relaxing experience. I know it has its critics, but the elimination of death as such is a massive leap forward. It effectively acts as an instant restart, and while it is contrived, it is probably less so than a screen saying 'game over' or a lives system. I know a lot of people bemoan the growing casual nature of gaming - hell, I do sometimes - but little touches like this are pretty important to improving the way we play games, and I definitely applaud the makers for taking this pretty risky step here. I agree with you her Dev, I will really look forward to any sequel - they have the movement, art style and basic gameplay pretty well realised. If they could create a game with the ingenuity and complexity of Sands of Time, it could be pretty spectacular. The engine is there - has been since Assassins Creed. Now they just need to go the extra step and work on creating the game said technology deserves!

I liked it and the animation stlye really suits the game.

silvine

I am nearly finished this now. It's looks good but it's a little reptitive. The combat is a bit annoying. It doesn't require much skill and the combos feel forced i.e you can only do this combo when the game says press B etc. Also sometimes it feels like the game is playing for you i.e. you just have to press A and the prince will jump to a pillar and turn around facing where you need to go next.

It's worth playing for when

The concubine creates illusions of Elka and you have to kill yourself, so the real one will save you

DeVore

You can do combos when you are just fighting them, you dont need to wait for a letter to flash up....

Attack with your sword and if you mash the button he will do a standard three attack slash. BUT if you tap twice and then go for a grab, you'll throw him into the air. Then use Elika (Y) and let her smack him, then use your own sword and smack him up into the air again. You can bounce them around like rag dolls tbh

DeV.
ps; Silvine, I thought that was the best bit too... especially since I came up with the idea while playing with mates